High school senior Melanie Skala excels above differences

Friday

Nov 12, 2010 at 10:30 PMNov 12, 2010 at 10:49 PM

Melanie Skala is like most high school seniors. She already is making college plans and ordering graduation invitations. She worries about her grades and got to vote for the first time a few weeks ago.But when she speaks, her words are wise beyond her years.

By Lisa RogersTimes Staff Writer

Melanie Skala is like most high school seniors. She already is making college plans and ordering graduation invitations. She worries about her grades and got to vote for the first time a few weeks ago.But when she speaks, her words are wise beyond her years.Melanie has had more surgeries and procedures in her 18 years than most people have in a lifetime. She was born with Goldenhar Syndrome, a rare congenital defect that resulted in the incomplete development of the ear, nose, soft palate, lip and mandible. She also has sensory, neural and conductive hearing loss and only three fingers on her right hand.She looks a little different, but she doesn't pay as much attention anymore to the stares she sometimes gets.But that wasn't always the case.Melanie's mother, Jackie Skala, said her daughter realized for the first time when she was about 10 years old that she looked different.“She had gone to a church function with my parents and another child called her a three-fingered freak,” her mother said. “She came home and wept and wept.”Until then, Tony and Jackie Skala had made the decision to home school Melanie and she wasn't around a lot of other children.The next year they enrolled her for sixth grade at Coosa Christian School, where she is a senior this year. “Melanie was looking so forward to going to school,” Jackie said.But the dream quickly turned into a nightmare.“It was the worst year of my life,” Melanie said.She was bullied and ridiculed.As soon as school officials realized what was happening, they put a stop to it, Jackie said.“They have a zero-tolerance policy, and they dealt with it quickly,” she said.But for Melanie, the damage already was done.“I lost my self-esteem, and I lost trust in people,” she said. “It's important for other kids to understand that you shouldn't make fun of the way someone looks.”For the Skalas, it didn't matter that their baby girl looked a little different when she was born. Tony and Jackie had been married for six years and were ecstatic for the addition to their family.As soon as Melanie was born, they knew something was wrong. She wasn't breathing and the doctors and nurses worked to clear her airway.With Goldenhar Syndrome, the lower jaw didn't support the facial muscles, and it blocked her airway.“I remember Tony came over to me and said, ‘She stopped breathing, but she is fine now.' Then he said, ‘And she only has three fingers on one hand.' I thought, ‘We can live with that,'” Jackie said.The muscles in her face didn't work to allow her to suck from a nipple, and a special nipple had to be used to force milk through. She had surgery when she was six months old to separate two fused fingers.At 10 months old, she had surgery to correct her cleft lip and rearrange some muscles in her face that allowed her to suck from a regular nipple.She was 31⁄2 when her hearing loss was diagnosed and she was fitted with hearing aids. She continued various treatments and went to speech and language therapy at Children's Hospital every week for more than seven years. Speech therapists taught her parents how to work with Melanie at home.At 5 years old, she had major jaw surgery that included having a jaw device implanted. The device malfunctioned, and the surgery had to be repeated.“I remember the day it hit me that this is always going to be our reality,” Jackie said.Although the surgery already had drastically changed Melanie's appearance, many people would stare — both adults and children.“People don't realize how intrusive they can be,” Jackie said. Sometimes other children would even ask her why she looked different.“I would tell her, ‘If somebody asks you anything, just try to educate them, and they'll forget you have only eight fingers,” Jackie said. “We're not offended if somebody asks a question, but they can do it in the right way.”For a mother, a highlight came when she overheard Melanie answer someone who asked her about her appearance in a store one day.“She said, ‘I was born this way. It's the way God made me,'” Jackie said. “I was filled with pride.”Jackie has a degree in early childhood education and taught for one year at Springville Elementary School. But after Melanie was born, she decided to stay home.She knew she could continue to teach Melanie, but she knew it was important for her to be with other children her own age.Once Melanie overcame the struggles of that first year in the private Christian school, she blossomed, her mother said.Through the years, she excelled in music, art and writing.“Melanie is an overcomer,” Coosa Christian Principal Mike Aldridge said. “The school takes a strong stand for students to be able to achieve at the level they want and that God wants, and I think she feels that.”Aldridge said Melanie has an attitude her peers should learn from.“It's my prayer that she has learned as much from us as we've learned from her,” he said.As a senior, she excels in her academic classes and makes good grades. She is in the school's choral group and plays piano, drums and tambourine at church.It's not unusual to find a drawing on one of Melanie's class assignments. The drawings are a little eccentric and she calls them “self-reflective.”“She started out when she was little drawing dinosaurs. She didn't do the typical trees and flowers,” her mother said.In the classroom, she uses a device that looks similar to an MP3 player, and she wears it around her neck. Most of her teachers wear a microphone that works with the device, called an iCom. Through technology, the device allows her to better hear her teachers.The device is provided through the Alabama Department of Children's Rehabilitative Services, where Melanie has been a client all her life. The family's medical insurance did not cover the cost of hearing aids until a few years ago, and the agency helped with that expense, as well.“She has to hear a new vocabulary word at least 10 times more than a child with normal hearing and in a variety of contexts before they master it,” she said.In her advanced math class, Melanie is not reluctant to ask questions to make sure she understands. Math is not one of her strong subjects, and she has had a tutor for the subject.“She is so dedicated,” her math teacher, Billa Burger, said. “Most students would have chosen a lower math to make it easier on herself, but not Melanie.”Her dedication to learning is evident with all her teachers.“She is the hardest-working student,” her anatomy teacher, Loey Mills, said.Melanie is enrolled in one college course and plans, most likely, to continue her education at Gadsden State Community College.She isn't sure yet what her plans are.“I might like to become a therapist, so I can help other people,” she said.Her accomplishments have earned her a statewide award through Children's Rehabilitative Services. The award is given to someone who has demonstrated the ability to cope with the individual problems of daily living and who has made progress toward reaching her maximum potential, said Emma Hereford of Children's Rehabilitative Services.In a speech to accept the award at a recent ceremony in Auburn, she showed a lot of maturity, Hereford said.“It was really moving, and she is a good example of overcoming challenges,” Hereford said. The team that works with the award recipient also is honored.Melanie's hard work has paid off, but her faith also has been an important part of her life. Her father works full time, but he also is an ordained minister. He has been pastor at several churches and recently began as pastor at Ebenezer Baptist Church.“It's important to have a strong family relationship and God in your life,” Melanie said. “Without God, everything is pretty hopeless.”Reaching the milestone of her senior year is important to her parents.“This is the big picture we've been shooting for since she was a little girl,” her mother said. “She is going to be an independent citizen, and she is going to work and provide for herself. This is what we've been preparing her for.”

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